Back in November, the Pierce County Parks Committee accepted a bid of $1,384,000 from American Express Excavation out of Eau Claire for the dredging of 100,000 cubic yards of sediment from Nugget Lake. The project is now about halfway complete, with American Express having dredged about 41,000 cubic meters as of Jan. 27.

The lake had last been dredged in 2007, with portions of the lake becoming shallow enough to the point it was difficult for boats to navigate. At the November meeting, Park Superintendent Travis Campbell said the lake’s level was down about 15 feet.

“Basically getting too shallow to be a recreational lake anymore,” Campbell said. “There was portions that were less than two feet deep. At Nugget Lake, there’s kind of a channel that goes into the lake, and that was nearly shallow.”

Campbell cited the site where the channel opens up into the lake as where the sediment buildup was getting to be too much. Shallow waters can also cause increased weed growth in the water due to the water heating faster. Less weed growth means less oxygen depletion in the winter, positively affecting the fish, Campbell said.

Nugget Lake was last dredged in 2007, but in that instance about 30,000 cubic yards were removed rather than 100,000. Campbell hopes this dredging will last at least three times as long, with potential for more under certain conditions.

“This one is three times bigger,” Campbell said. “The goal is to dig it down to original depth. The engineers basically took the original contour map from when the lake was built, and that’s what they tried to base their goal contour lines into. Hopefully it should last, theoretically, three times longer than the last dredge, if not more.”

Campbell said efforts upstream at farm fields and stream protection could extend the timeframe even further. Things like grass waterways can prevent sediment from entering the stream that eventually compiles at Nugget Lake.

American Express was expected to need about 35 days on the lake to complete the project and 60 days total, with one of the main hindrances being weather. In order to dredge, the crew needs frozen ground, which has been on and off of late.

When complete, there are plenty of positives in Campbell’s eyes. He expects access to the lake to be significantly easier.

“It will definitely make the lake itself a better recreational area,” Campbell said. “Because it was getting so shallow, it would basically become a swamp in probably 10 years.”

Overall, Campbell said American Express has done a nice job on the project and county officials are pleased with the progress being made.